THE number of people in Hunter New England hospitals with COVID-19 has quadrupled since Christmas Day.
While the number of new cases reported in the region in the 24 hours to Saturday fell to 1342, down almost 500 from the previous day, the number of hospitalisations continued to climb.
Fifty people spent the first day of 2022 hospitalised with COVID-19, up from 45 the previous day and double the 25 reported on December 30. On Christmas Day, there were only 12.
Importantly, the number of patients in intensive care is steady at three.
Across NSW, there are 1066 people hospitalised with the virus, 83 of whom are in intensive care.
NSW has recorded another 18,278 COVID cases on Sunday and two deaths, down from Saturday's 22,577 infections when four deaths were recorded.
While the latest case numbers were down for Hunter New England and NSW, it's likely to be a reflection of fewer tests.
Regional testing figures were not available on Sunday but across NSW, there were 90,019 tests on New Year's Day, compared to 119,278 on New Year's Eve.
Many testing clinics across the region were closed over the weekend.
Newcastle had 379 positive cases, compared to 496 the previous day. There were large falls as well in Lake Macquarie (339, down from 425), Maitland (159, down from 241), Port Stephens (71, down from 174) and Mid Coast (72, down from 146).
But there was a spike in cases in Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter.
Muswellbrook recorded 53 positive cases, up from nine, while the Upper Hunter had 23 new cases, up from eight.
Dr Kerry Chant stressed that the daily case numbers reflect testing conducted over previous days as there are delays. Earlier in the week she said testing systems remain back-logged by a huge demand for tests in the lead-up to Christmas.
The high case numbers come as Premier Dominic Perrottet continues to focus on hospitalisation and intensive care numbers rather than the daily case total.
Despite comprising about six per cent of the population, unvaccinated people make up the majority of those in intensive care, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Friday.
To ensure hospital systems can cope, asymptomatic health workers who are in isolation due to being a close contact of a positive case will be permitted to leave isolation in "exceptional circumstances", NSW Health announced on Friday night.
The exemption to the public health order, signed off by Mr Hazzard, means close contacts can leave self-isolation to attend work if they have been identified by their employer as critical and unable to work from home.
The exemption allows them to travel from home to work, and if they develop symptoms they have to get a PCR test and cannot return to work until they test negative.
Some 93.6 per cent of adult NSW residents have now had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while the 12-to-15-year-old age bracket has moved to 78.2 per cent having received two doses.
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